Our journey began with a short flight to New York. One would normally think there would be no problem with that, especially seeing as it was the very first leg of our long trip. There was a problem... You see we typically fly stand-by, meaning we get on the plane if there are available seats after all the full-revenue passengers have boarded. There just happened to be one more of us than seats available on our scheduled Delta flight. Great! Panic is quickly induced and thoughts of never even making it to Europe come rushing to the front of our minds.

Mom is seasoned at this and has faith that we will get there, It was still a bit tense, however we ultimately do get there. She and I were on our Delta flight and my dad on a full fare American Airlines flight that left less than 30 minutes later. Such a fantastic start to our three week vacation!

Mom and I arrived at New York's LaGuardia airport and have to cab it over to JFK. Fortunately dad's plane went direct to JFK, saving him enough time to meet us and catch the most important flight, the one to Stockholm. Now, flying stand-by has funny ways of catching up with itself. It can be absolutely horrendous and strand you for days or it can be pretty good. So good in fact that this time, the three of us were upgraded to business class...! The flight went well, as you'd expect from being in the front of the plane. Lots of movies were watched, some sleeping happened and many hands of video poker were played.

Pressed salmon with pear-ginger salad anyone?

We landed in a drizzly Stockholm the next morning and took the nicest commuter train in the history of commuter trains into the city. By the time we got the central station, we all needed to eat again and grabbed a few sandwiches (this implies it was cheap and quick. It was quick, but definitely not cheap. Sweden is ungodly expensive.) before heading out to brave the elements. Outside was a grand statue of a stately 19th century man sporting his best 21st century audio equipment. Win.

We had about six hours to kill before boarding our ship to Helsinki, so we chose to stroll around town, see the sights, catch the changing of the guard and a few other things. I was most impressed by a) the quality of the bicycle lanes b) the fly fisherman in the river.

Bike lanes. Mind Blown.

After several hours of being outside, getting progressively more and more wet, we hailed a cab and headed over the docks. Our hungry ship was awaiting us so we got our boarding passes and, well, boarded. I wish I had pictures of the passenger entrance, as it was so overly gaudy and fake it was hilarious. They had a four-piece lady string ensemble playing semi-classical music, two guys walking around in nothing but towels to showcase the spa, five restaurants immediately in view and more chrome and brass than a cheap Las Vegas hotel. As much as they wanted to make it like a cruise ship, it really was just a ferry and with that in mind, we found our cozy little cabin and settled in for the 18 hour ferry ride.